The Archive

IN THIS EDITION

Senate deficit hawks balk at debt limit amid reconciliation push

Wicker’s balancing act

Cruz says Pentagon staff lobbied against spectrum auctions

Johnson’s general counsel is retiring after decades on Hill

ICYMI: Malliotakis talks taxes, tariffs, DOGE and more

THE TOP

Senate deficit hawks balk at debt limit amid reconciliation push

Happy Wednesday morning.

After months of public barbs and backstabbing, House and Senate Republicans are finally moving closer to alignment on their plans to advance President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.

For the first time since Republicans won the White House and Congress last November, Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune seem to be singing from the same song sheet on their reconciliation plans. Johnson and Thune returned from a Tuesday meeting with Trump administration officials surprisingly unified on a host of key procedure and policy issues that will drive the next few months of high-stakes legislating.

Debt limit? In. One big, beautiful bill? Check. Trying to pass a compromise budget resolution by the Easter recess? They’re going for it.

But this is the easy part. In many ways, this surface-level progress belies the enormous challenges still ahead.

Warning signs. Thune told Senate Republicans during a closed-door lunch on Tuesday that he wants to have a compromise budget resolution on the Senate floor the week of April 7, as we scooped. That’s less than two weeks away. Thune also caught GOP senators off-guard when, during the meeting, he began to embrace the idea of addressing the debt limit in reconciliation.

Senate GOP fiscal hawks are already recoiling, demanding massive spending cuts in exchange for a debt-limit hike. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) told us flat-out that he wants to use the debt limit as leverage to force Republicans to accept bigger spending cuts.

“We’ve got to keep that leverage, because obviously people in my own party aren’t serious about a reasonable spending level,” the Wisconsin Republican said.

There’s also Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), who has long opposed using reconciliation to raise the debt limit. Paul told us Tuesday night: “They’ve lost me.”

“There will be other conservatives who they will lose… and the whole thing goes down,” Paul added. “So they’ll have to decide.”

During the closed-door GOP lunch, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said the spending cuts must total at least $2 trillion to get his support. That’s bigger than the House budget resolution’s spending cuts number — $1.5 trillion — that many other Senate Republicans have already complained about.

“If we’re gonna put [the debt limit] in there, we’ve got to make sure we are aggressive when it comes to spending,” Lee said.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) is also part of that group.

“I don’t want to vote for a debt ceiling. I want to balance the budget,” Scott told us. “If you balance the budget, then you don’t have to worry about [the debt limit].”

Senate Republicans can’t lose more than three votes on a reconciliation bill.

Debt limit pros and cons: Addressing the debt limit through budget reconciliation carries tangible benefits for Republicans.

First, it would essentially mean that the day the United States hits its borrowing limit — the so-called “X date” — becomes the deadline for passing a reconciliation package. Congress loves nothing more than a deadline, so this could be exactly what Republicans need to kick things into high gear. (Reminder: CBO will publish its “X date” projection at 10 a.m. today.)

Raising the debt limit through reconciliation also obviates the need for Democratic votes — removing a key leverage point for Democrats to make separate demands.

On the other hand, the “X date” may arrive sooner than Republicans think. Tying Trump’s entire legislative agenda to that could be flirting with disaster.

Trump the savior? Trump’s desire to address the debt limit in reconciliation is a big deal. He got conservative hardliners on board with it in the House-passed budget resolution.

House Ways and Means Committee Chair Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), once skeptical the debt limit was doable in reconciliation, put it this way: “It’s a priority for the president, so it’s a priority for me.”

But the Senate is a different animal. Unlike Johnson, who owes his speakership fully to Trump, Thune won the GOP leadership race on his own. And a Trump pressure campaign sometimes doesn’t have the same effect on senators.

That being said, it’s difficult to see any of the aforementioned conservatives wanting to get blamed for tanking Trump’s agenda and allowing a massive tax increase.

Also, a tax scoop: Americans for Tax Reform President and Founder Grover Norquist is sending a letter to members of Congress today with a stark warning against capping companies’ state and local tax deductions unless the revenue funds a corporate rate cut.

It’s a big statement from Norquist, the longtime GOP tax-hike opponent, that could spook lawmakers. Republicans have had discussions about the offset option, as we scooped. Companies are up in arms over it.

Two more nuggets:

— Johnson will distribute more than $4 million to House Republican lawmakers from his Grow the Majority joint fundraising committee today. This is part of the $11 million transfer Johnson announced Tuesday morning at a House Republican Conference meeting. Members will receive a check averaging $139,000.

— EMILYs List is targeting 46 House Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterms, in hopes of replacing “extremist” incumbents with female lawmakers who support abortion rights. Here’s the full list.

— Andrew Desiderio, Laura Weiss and Jake Sherman

Join us on Wednesday, April 9 at 8:30 a.m. ET for a conversation with Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas). Punchbowl News founder Jake Sherman will sit down with Pfluger to discuss the news of the day and investing in America. Afterward, Drew Maloney, CEO of American Investment Council and Bobby Franklin, president and CEO of the National Venture Capital Association, will join Jake for a fireside chat. Save your seat now!

Don’t miss: The first Tech Quarterly special edition of 2025 is here. We have an exclusive interview with FCC Chair Brendan Carr, who shares his thoughts on DEI, the possibility of President Donald Trump firing his Democratic colleagues and the spectrum issues splitting congressional Republicans. Plus, more on venture capital’s emergence in Washington. Check your inboxes and our website later this morning for more.

THE SENATE

Wicker’s balancing act

Last Wednesday, Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) issued an extraordinary statement urging Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to drop reported plans to abandon a key NATO military command post and scrap an expansion of U.S. Forces Japan.

The next day, the pair spent the day in Tupelo, Miss., appearing at a veterans’ charity event and touring a General Atomics manufacturing facility.

It was an illustration of the increasingly difficult balancing act that has come to define Wicker’s nascent tenure as chair of a historically bipartisan Senate panel.

Wicker expended a ton of political capital to help get Hegseth confirmed. Yet Wicker has publicly challenged Hegseth more than any other Senate committee chair has done for the Cabinet secretaries in their jurisdiction.

And it’s not just Hegseth. Wicker’s relationship with President Donald Trump is unique in that he rarely gets backlash from Trump or online MAGA personalities when he diverges publicly from the president. This sets Wicker apart from other Republicans.

Consider this, all in just a two-month stretch:

— Hegseth’s first big speech included a suggestion that Ukraine would never join NATO, and that returning to its pre-war borders is “unrealistic.” Wicker said he was “disturbed” by the comments and called it a “rookie mistake.” Wicker also said Hegseth “is going to be a great defense secretary, although he wasn’t my choice for the job.”

— Wicker said it was a mistake for the Trump administration to oppose a UN resolution condemning Russia’s brutal assault of Ukraine. Remember that Wicker also declared last year that Vladimir Putin’s barbarism shows why negotiating with Moscow is a bad idea.

— Amid Trump’s high-stakes negotiations with Russia — and his disparaging comments about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — Wicker said Putin can’t be trusted and suggested the Russian leader should be “executed.”

— Wicker said there’s “no question” that mistakes were made when top officials, including Hegseth, were found to have been discussing sensitive war plans over Signal. Wicker said his panel will investigate and seek briefings on the incident.

Most of Wicker’s pushback is communicated in private. Wicker and Trump are close, and they spoke as recently as Monday. But Wicker constantly has to weigh whether — and how intensely — to speak out against a president of his own party. Importantly, Wicker just won reelection in November, which makes it a bit easier politically when he takes his criticisms public.

“We’re working together very, very well,” Wicker told us of Hegseth in a brief interview. “And the president — it’s interesting, members can dial Donald J. Trump and he picks up the phone. I’ve been in Congress 30 years now. It’s never been so easy to talk to the chief executive.”

Perhaps the dynamic is more of a reflection on Hegseth, who came into the job with very little experience compared to his predecessors and could benefit from Wicker’s counsel to guide him on their shared goals.

“He’s trying to be a good committee chairman,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) said of Wicker. “What I’ve seen is, he’s trying to be supportive of the president and also make sure we have a military that can defend our freedom.”

But Hegseth has done and said things that naturally put Wicker in an uncomfortable position. For example, Wicker had defended Hegseth’s push for cost-cutting measures at the Pentagon — that is until last week, when Wicker learned that those cuts may extend to the NATO and Japan funding mentioned above.

“It seems to me like [Wicker] feels like he’s not in control,” observed a GOP senator who was granted anonymity to deliver a candid assessment.

It may seem that way sometimes. Wicker is one of Congress’ most outspoken and prolific defense hawks. He’s championed an ambitious national security strategy that includes massive increases in Pentagon spending. He frequently wears a Ukrainian-American flag pin. These don’t often line up with Trump and his national security officials.

“He’s continuing a bipartisan tradition of the committee, which is absolutely crucial,” said Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.), the Armed Services Committee’s longtime top Democrat. “There are decisions you might disagree with, but you don’t want to take such an overtly critical position.”

— Andrew Desiderio

PEOPLE NEWS

Johnson’s general counsel is retiring after decades on Hill

Ashley Callen, Speaker Mike Johnson’s general counsel and a longtime fixture of House Republican politics, is retiring from Capitol Hill after two decades.

Callen, a graduate of George Mason Law School, started her career working for former Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-Texas) before beginning a long career in the oversight realm, working for the House Oversight Committee under former Chair Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.). Callen worked for the House Agriculture Committee, the Science, Space and Technology Committee and the Judiciary Committee before returning to Oversight under Reps. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and James Comer (R-Ky.).

Callen entered the leadership in 2023, working for House Majority Leader Steve Scalise before making the leap to Johnson’s office in November 2023.

Here’s Johnson’s statement:

Also: Scott Sloofman, a former top aide to former Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, is joining Bullpen Strategy Group.

Sloofman served as staff director for the Senate Republican Communications Center and as a senior McConnell adviser on communications since 2019.

– Jake Sherman and John Bresnahan

PUNCHBOWL NEWS EVENTS

ICYMI: Malliotakis talks taxes, tariffs, DOGE and more

Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-N.Y.), joined us for a conversation Tuesday where she shared her views on the Trump administration’s tariffs, reconciliation packages, tax policy, DOGE and more.

Malliotakis said she wouldn’t mind raising the debt limit as Senate, House and some White House officials work towards combining the two GOP reconciliation proposals.

The New York Republican also laid out what her top three priorities are for a tax package: restoring SALT relief on a federal level, reducing taxes for senior citizens and bringing the supply chain back to the United States.

You can watch the full video here.

– Lillian Juarez

MOMENTS

CLIPS